LOUISE BOGAN
Portrait

She has no need to fear the fall
Of harvest from the laddered reach
Of orchards, nor the tide gone ebbing
      From the steep beach.

Nor hold to pain's effrontery
Her body's bulwark, stern and savage,
Nor be a glass, where to forsee
      Another's ravage.

What she has gathered, and what lost,
She will not find to lose again.
She is possessed by time, who once
      Was loved by men.
